Unanswered prayers

As far as I am concerned. Mark Sanford’s win over Curtis Bostic in South Carolina’s First Congressional District GOP runoff represents an unanswered prayer. Sanford continues to combine his mastery of therapeutic psychobabble with an ill-fitting Christian overlay that should be a dead giveaway, as Sanford himself all but acknowledged last night.

Sanford is, of course, on a journey of discovery — make that a very long journey, involving the false modesty of the royal we: “It’s been a very long journey. And in that journey I am humbled to find ourselves where we find ourselves tonight,” Sanford said after the returns were counted.

Perhaps the “we” included the Argentine firecracker who is now his fiancee as well as his companion on the journey. It’s a journey that has taken him from Charleston to Buenos Aires and back at least a few times. You may recall that the journey was originally advertised as taking place on the Appalachian Trail, but that was long ago.

“I want to thank my God,” Sanford said. Not completely unaware, Sanford added: “I used to cringe when somebody would say, ‘I want to thank my God’ because at that point I would think this is getting uncomfortable. But once you really receive God’s grace and [have] seen it reflected in others you stop and acknowledge that grace and the difference He has made in my life and in so many lives across this state and across this nation.”

Sanford used to cringe, but he has overcome. Thank you, Lord. Will wonders never cease?

As for me, I’m going through my own crisis of faith. Is Bill Clinton available for counseling?

JOHN adds: Garth Brooks once wrote that some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers. Brooks’s theology was sound, but I am afraid Sanford’s victory is not in that category.